In a hospital, doctor's office or home environment setting, soiled syringes or other medical implements are commonly deposited in a disposal container following their use. Unused, sterile syringes or other medical implements are commonly obtained from a source separate from the disposal container. It is somewhat inconvenient at times, however, to provide a source of unused, sterile medical implements and a separate container for collecting the soiled medical implements following their use. In other words, it is sometimes disadvantageous from a convenience standpoint for medical practitioners to have one location from which implements are obtained and a separate location in which implements are disposed of.
Attempts have been made to overcome this inconvenience. For example, a syringe dispensing and storage container for personal use is disclosed by Erickson in U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,017. U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,017 describes a syringe dispensing and collecting system comprising a multi-functional box and a plurality of unused syringes therein. The multi-functional box facilitates the sequential dispensing of unused syringes from the box, with concurrent facilitation of the safe sequential feeding of used syringes into the box for storage therein. A dividing tray is provided within the box to collect used syringes while simultaneously to provide a blockage between the used syringes and an exit opening.
Nevertheless, there continues to be a need to further develop and improve disposal and collection devices for medical implements.